Chapter 04
Regardless of his will, Do-geon’s neck kept turning in the direction they were walking, like a revolving automatic door.
‘Lee Seo-yeon knew how to smile like that? And at a young guy like him?’
Do-geon stood there until the two disappeared around the corner.
His gaze soon fell on a shabby, crumpled plastic bag on the ground.
Grapes with their skins torn open. Green juice had seeped out, leaving the bottom of the bag wet.
The sight strangely overlapped with his insides, which felt like they were rotting and about to burst.
“You guys. You must get into Lee Seo-yeon’s mouth today.”
Without another word, he picked up the bag and walked toward Seo-yeon’s house.
He was the kind of person who could not feel satisfied unless he finished what he had started. Since he had come this far, he might as well find out where she lived.
“Here it is. Number 18.”
I like the number 18.
He pronounced the number 18 strongly, as if crushing it between his teeth.
His gaze soon moved to the brand-new white nameplate attached to the gate.
—Yeonhwa Share House
He lightly frowned, a smile still lingering on his face.
“It was a share house? Then that young man is a tenant here?”
The reason their shoes were the same could be because the tenants had bought them together.
Or perhaps Lee Seo-yeon, who seemed like the type with an obsession for keeping everything perfectly straight and measured, had forced everyone to wear the same slippers.
“Of course.”
Only then did a look resembling relief pass over his face, and the smooth corners of his lips stretched toward his ears.
Grinning in front of the share house gate, he hung the bag of grapes on the gate handle.
Something fluttering caught his attention from the left.
“What is that?”
A paper was attached to the pillar beside the gate. The bottom part, where it had been cut with scissors, fluttered like the hem of a skirt.
As if the paper itself were Lee Seo-yeon, he stared at it with a deep furrow between his brows.
—Looking for someone to share a house
Monthly rent: 600,000 won
Utilities: Divided equally among N people
Conditions: Any gender. Non-smoker. Age 20–40.
Quiet people welcome.
“First, I need to find out who lives in this house.”
‘My grandfather, who has gone to the “land of hell,” left me Lee Seo-yeon. I have to make her my “wife” to inherit the fortune. What a miserable fate. So my first priority should be to make the tenants living here my allies.’
After looking around, he tore off the advertisement and put it in his pocket.
‘If it concerns Lee Seo-yeon, I’ll find out everything. Just wait and see.’
After returning to his car, he took out his phone and sent Seo-yeon a text.
“What if she gets so touched by my message that she cries? I even sent it in the polite speech she likes so much.”
“What is this?”
Seo-yeon poked her head toward the bag hanging on the gate.
“Grapes?”
Who hangs grapes on our house?
Confused, Seo-yeon could not even bring herself to take the bag down and simply stared at it.
Her gaze moved toward the bottom of the bag, where green liquid had pooled.
“They’re all crushed.”
At that moment, a text arrived on Seo-yeon’s phone.
Because the Chairman could contact her at any time while he was alive, Seo-yeon had developed the habit of checking her messages immediately.
—This is Cha Do-geon. I bought these grapes because I thought of you, Ms. Lee Seo-yeon. If my behavior today was rude, I apologize. Please accept them as an apology. You didn’t come out even when I rang the bell, so I left only the grapes. Text me tonight.
‘Why does he talk like this?’
This man, Cha Do-geon, was doing something childish using the grapes as an excuse. There was no way she did not know that he was subtly provoking her while outwardly using polite speech.
—Mr. Cha Do-geon, from now on, please do not come to my house without permission.
—Oh, I’m sorry. Are you angry? When Ms. Lee Seo-yeon gets angry, a weak man like me feels his heart drop. I have to make sure you like me no matter what. Please calm down. As you know, I’m in a situation where I can’t see anything in front of me right now.
—Excuse me.
—These are the first grapes from your future husband, so at least appreciate my sincerity and enjoy them. That’s all.
“Your husband?”
There was something unpleasant about the thorn hidden at the end of his words, so Seo-yeon slightly shook her head.
“He’s not my type.”
That was the conclusion she reached that day.
‘I’ve arrived at the zoo. From now on, I am the king of the animals, the lion.’
At last, Do-geon entered his grandfather’s Yeongheondang (榮軒堂).
‘It should be fine if I look a little rough.’
Do-geon swept his hair back and opened the buttons of his jacket.
When the elevator stopped on the first floor and the doors opened, what he saw were the tops of the heads of thirty servants.
‘Excellent.’
‘Did Grandfather name this house like that because he enjoyed this kind of thing? How much money did he want to accumulate and how glorious did he want to become? In the end, what did he have to show for his life except putting a few 50,000-won bills on his coffin?’
Head housekeeper Go Mi-young stepped forward.
“Welcome, Young Master.”
His gaze moved toward Shin-young, who was standing stiffly as if she had a neck brace on.
Perhaps she did not want to be intimidated by him, even though he was her grandson by blood relation. She had stacked several rings on her fingers and was spreading them wide.
“Let me see you. You too, Housekeeper.”
They gathered in Chairman Cha’s study.
Of course, Do-geon was the one sitting at the mahogany desk that Chairman Cha had cherished.
Shin-young sat down, looking as though she might get a cervical disc problem if she kept her neck so stiff.
“Let’s get straight to the point. The room Grandfather used is mine now.”
“Do-geon!”
Tsk.
He clicked his tongue and casually dug a finger into his ear.
“Why are you acting like this? Didn’t you hear today? The inheritance came to me. This house is mine. Naturally, doesn’t the owner of the house get to use the biggest room?”
When her plan to faithfully play the role of a dignified chaebol lady failed, Shin-young burst into tears.
“I, I spent thirty years in that room with him…”
She’s a really good actress.
Sob.
She struck her chest hard and continued her method acting of grief and weeping.
But there was only coldness in Do-geon’s deep brown eyes as he looked at her.
“Housekeeper, I’ll give you one week. Completely renovate Grandfather’s room to suit my taste.”
“Yes, Young Master.”
“Housekeeper Go!”
Apparently, servants were easy targets.
Shin-young glared at Mi-young with bloodshot eyes as if she wanted to devour her.
“Leave. There is something I need to discuss with him.”
After Mi-young left, Do-geon placed his interlocked hands on the table.
Do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti, do.
Shin-young’s voice gradually rose in pitch.
She cried, screamed, and eventually pounded the desk while hurling harsh curses at the name of the dead Chairman Cha.
‘Fuck. This feels like shit.’
Why had his grandfather included this woman and her daughter in his will?
He wanted to deny it, but it was clearly love.
Knowing his own cold personality, his grandfather had probably intended to make sure these people could at least make a living.
But look at her now.
The woman in front of him was adding words like bastard and fuck after his dead grandfather’s name and cursing him.
“Pathetic. Truly pathetic.”
“You, you!”
Her index finger, stacked with two rings, pointed at Do-geon in the air as if it might ache from the force.
“Listen, Mrs. Moon.”
“I am your grandmother!”
“Ah! Then you should have seduced Grandfather sooner and at least gotten yourself registered in the family register.”
Her smeared mascara drew ugly lines down her cheeks. For a woman who had just held her husband’s funeral, her current disheveled appearance seemed more fitting.
‘But what can you do? I’m about to drop a nuclear bomb. I just hope you don’t collapse.’
“Moon Yu-ri, your daughter. If she is really Grandfather’s blood relative, she can receive half of the property he left to me in his will.”
“Gasp…”
“Why didn’t clever Mrs. Moon do that? You put all your younger brothers into the company, didn’t you? Your brothers must have told you to file a lawsuit to recover the legally reserved inheritance share.”
Shin-young shrank her neck.
The reason his grandfather never registered his marriage with her until the end, and gave his daughter Yu-ri the surname Moon instead of Cha.
‘She isn’t Grandfather’s daughter. And now you’ve been caught by me.’
“Listen, Mrs. Moon. You and Moon Yu-ri are actresses everyone in the country knows. So let’s quietly bury this and move on, okay? Tell that immature Moon Yu-ri to sit down and stay quiet. She firmly believes Grandfather was her father. What do you think will happen when she learns the truth? She’ll go crazy.”
Only then did Shin-young avoid Do-geon’s gaze.
‘You must be embarrassed. Getting caught by someone as young as me.’
Do-geon lazily leaned back in his chair.
“So, clear out the room. Right now.”
Tomorrow was the day of her regular eye examination, so Seo-yeon did not have to go to work.
Lying on her bed, Seo-yeon thought of the late Chairman Cha.
All she had done was place a single chrysanthemum at the funeral and step away.
He had been like a father and a grandfather to her, yet she had not even been able to properly cry for him. In reality, her heart was black and bruised inside.
“…Chairman.”
Then her phone rang.
‘Cha Do-geon?’
After taking a moment to steady her breathing, she answered the call.
“Hello—”
Before she could finish speaking, Do-geon suddenly asked,
[Did you eat the grapes? Or did you throw them away?]
